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Forum - View topicANNCast - A Peek At Chu
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I had to look up "inimitable". I feel ashamed as a writer.
Cowboy Bebop was the heavy seller, huh? No surprise, but I'm glad nevertheless. I like the premise of Eat-Man, but for some reason have never actually watched it. It's too bad nobody watched the original Mobile Suit Gundam. They were missing a classic. I started watching because 08th MS Team got me hyped up for the Universal Century. It also didn't help the franchise that Gundam SEED got a 1:00 am slot. Pushing SEED hard? They barely pushed it at all! You can tell they weren't even trying to make Gundam popular here after a while. Oh well. Teaming up SEED with .hack//SIGN was like taking two sleeping pills, anyway. .hack//BORING. There were several things wrong with the initial Zeta release. Awful English dub, dubtitles, OP and EDs were replaced with instrumentals, PENCIL SHARPENERS, delayed release. And Bandai led the consumer to believe that buying the expensive boxset was the only way to ever get the show, but then they re-released it with corrected subtitles and never offered any kind of exchange program. Jerry Chu doesn't seem to know a damn thing about Gundam if he thinks it's about "a whiny boy saving the world" or that it's all the same. It's convenient his memory is great except when it came to how Bandai messed up the Zeta release. But he liked SEED? SEED is just a bland, emotionless version of UC Gundam. If you still have that Tomino autographed packaging, I could give it a good home. Last edited by penguintruth on Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5518 |
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The original Blue Ranger? Was he referring to David Yost who played Billy? Now that's a shocker!
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2695 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Would I be wrong to say that Dan Doh!! has become the new Heat Guy J for the podcast, i.e. it comes up more often than it should (though obviously not on a ever-episode basis J had)? Hell, even I brought it up when I was on the last call-out show!
Even though I didn't start being a full-on "anime fan" until about 2004, I've bought some of those VHS clamshell releases AnimeVillage did, and they are really awesome cases for VHS tapes. Also, the show's were pretty enjoyable, such as Eat-Man and Ehrgeiz (though my Eat-Man tapes are the Bandai re-release with the cardboard sleeves). Yeah, I like Ehrgeiz, mainly for the characters, which I felt made the show worth watching. Don't worry Justin, I like the original Eat-Man too, though I prefer '98 mainly for how it's accurate to the manga... But the original's weird-as-hell style still kept me interested and makes it memorable in it's own way. I can't really say that one is better than the other, mainly because they're so different from each other. Ah, the Fox Kids edit of Escaflowne... To be honest, it was that airing that introduced me to Escaflowne, and I'll never forget that because it ended up with me buying the uncut version on DVD and really loving it. I can't hate Bandai for the edits made to Escaflowne's TV airing, since I now love the show because of that airing. I never bought the Gunbuster set BVUSA did, even though I really enjoyed the OVA. And that was mainly because of the pricing, and that was actually one of BVUSA's better price points. The only BVUSA releases I ever bought was MS igLoo: Apocalypse 0079, and that was because I was able to get for $5 at a con, and Demon Prince Enma, and that was still at $20 for each DVD. I would have loved to see some of those BVUSA releases get a proper re-release... Singles can still get more money than sets? Wow, pretty much 99% of anime fans feel that singles are useless and insult companies that still do them... And then they continually wonder how a company like Anime Midstream is still around, releasing a single volume of Raijin-Oh each year. Yeah, singles can certainly suck, but if it's what's allowing a company to live in this industry then I'll certainly support it. Oh, yes, there is an Ehrgeiz trailer out there... Complete with Steven Blum calling it the "future" of mech anime or something to that extent. I once also found it online, but it might be gone by now. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4555 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Next time Jerry's on, take a shot of whiskey every time he says "at the end of the day".
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skyreno4
 Posts: 92 |
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Im Hoping they get Gundam Seed Remastered BD... japan is about to released it dont know when.., if they do get it Fans will come including me, to buy it
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PBsallad
 Posts: 338 Location: Phoenix |
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I'm pretty sure he was joking when he said that. I haven't seen every Gundam series, but you have to admit thats kinda the case with the first 2 series. Amuro and Kamille mature later on, but at the beginning they are both quite whiny. edit: fixed wording Last edited by PBsallad on Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1259 |
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It did have a prime slot on Toonami at the start, although this was Toonami during its transition from every weekday to a once a week Saturday format. It was the first show I remember watching that way - I think it was on at 9:00 PM or something? It was weird going from one long commercial break to multiple tiny ones. I think that transition probably had a lot to do with why it got killed, especially given how slow those first couple of episodes are compared to other shows. (And, well, if you ask me, it also didn't help that the show was merely alright at best.) I remember hearing talk about whether the toy line had anything to do with Cartoon Network losing patience with it especially quickly - there are photos of the Zeta Gundam line that was ready to roll out before they replaced it with a much smaller Seed line, which I still remember nobody short of like KB Toys actually stocked. That's kind of a different thing I guess, but it would be interesting if one day we hear a little more about that somehow. |
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DerekTheRed
 Posts: 3544 Location: ::Points to hand:: |
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Must... search for... Planetes Easter egg...
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Macron One
 Posts: 151 Location: Netherlands |
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Another great podcast with some fascinating information!
I always suspected it was the Japanese who messed up Gundam's chances of greater success in the US market, so it was really interesting to hear mr. Chu's explanation confirming this. It's an easy thing to say after the fact, but releasing a then 20 year old series on TV in the US that had no nostalgia factor for the American mainstream public was very obviously asking for trouble. Following the success of Wing, the obvious move should have been to bring over Gundam X, which was not only the series that immediately followed Wing, but also the closest to Wing in terms of animation style and character design. Granted, Gundam X wasn't succesfull in Japan, but much of that can be attributed to franchise fatigue, as Gundam series had been released one after the other in very quick succesion for several years. Gundam X as a series actually holds up quite well and should have been the natural follow-up to Wing in America. It's good to hear that Escaflowne was quite succesfull for Bandai. I was personally very doubtful of it performing well, considering the awful dub and the botched TV airing. I'm glad it reached a large audience despite these handicaps! Honestly, im VERY surprised to hear that Bandai entertainment is profitable at present (or at least as recently as 2010). From my point of view, it seems to be the one company that, in recent years, without fail finds some way of making its releases extremely unappealing. Hayate the Combat Butler released on overpriced singles instead of 13 episode sets. The Girl who leapt through Space released likewise on singles, as well as missing the original omakes. Star Driver released sub-only when it might have merited a dubbed release. K-ON!, a 13 episode series released as FOUR volumes, while suffering audio issues. A laundry list of release blunders, combined with the fact that they have released very few titles in the last 2 years, had me convinced that the company would be struggling. While it's great to hear that they're apparantly doing okay, it's a mystery to me how they manage it. Also surprised to hear that Outlaw Star continues to sell. I haven't heard anyone even mention the series for ages. Like Zac, it seemed to me to be a series that just totally vanished from the spotlight years ago, completely overshadowed by Cowboy Bebop's enduring fame. And Blue Submarine No.6 was still selling well? The late 90s CG of that OVA does not hold up very well at all IMO. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Gundam Seed was a remake of MSG that was intended to be an update for a new generation. Kira was obviously your Amuro fill in, they had all three types of Char (rival Char, mentor Char, and Crazy Char), and Coordinators was an update of Newtypes so it was based on actual science. It's my 4th favorite Gundam series but it wasn't groundbreaking.
Cyber Formula was a anime released in 1991 which was brought over because it was what made Fukuda and Morosawa popular in Japan (it won the Anime Grand Prix). If it was released in the late 90's or had less dated character designs than it might have a chance. Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny had as far as I can tell the highest sales of a tv series of the last decade (One Piece has higher ratings though). Kira, Athrun, Lacus, and Cagalli where 4 of the most popular characters of the decade (Gundam Seed won Animage's Anime Grand Prix once, and Gundam Seed Destiny won it twice, Kira Yamato was voted Male character of the year twice, Athrun won it once, and Lacus Clyne won female character of the year a record 4 times, for newtype's character of the decade Kira got second, and Athrun got third in the male character category, while Cagalli got first, and Lacus was second among females). So by several measures, it was the most popular tv series in Japan for the past decade (though you could argue that One Piece's ratings trumps sales). Kind of shocked that Bandai was apparently in the black last year, I know they had some shows that where popular (Code Geass, and Gurren Lagann) but I thought they would still be in the red.
Due to the low ratings of Gundam X, it still has a stigma of being one of the few failures in Gundam history. Bandai of America would have had to talk their parent company into letting them dub it, and like MSG they couldn't release a Japanese version because there wasn't a dvd version in Japan at the time. There really wasn't a guaranteed hit Gundam show they could show. Last edited by Charred Knight on Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:19 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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They're civillians thrown into war. It's not whiny, they're horrified. |
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Flame-X
Posts: 39 |
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Although I don't agree with Jerry's rant on Gundam shows being the same story and all, as he stated himself, he's not really a fan of Gundam so it's understandable why he would think that way. I think the problem lays on how formulaic it is, not the story/characters.
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wAnder481
Posts: 8 |
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I kinda figured this. If they were in the red, I would expect them to stop distributing anime completely and all the investment from the parent company would focus on other divisions like gaming and toys. It seems to me that they are doing what they need to do to still maintain some sort of profits. (no dub, single volumes, not renewing licenses) and pushing out content sparingly when they see opportunity. I don't feel a lot of their back catalog will be in print anymore and what they make now will be limited as well. For example, a bunch of recent titles just got counters at rightstuf. And I think select volumes of Gundam 00 keep getting listed and delisted over and over again. Flag, Zegapain, and .hack//roots all never got complete collections either. I feel as if they are only going to put out titles that they know they can sustain for the short term and know will give quick results from the core community. (As with most all of the remaining anime companies these days). However, I don't think we can expect anything unpredictable from them anymore. I think all that they have slated for this year is Turn A Gundam, My Ordinary Life, Gosick, and the remainders of Star Driver, Tales of the Abyss, and Gundam UC. They really need to get on the ball with Blu-Ray. There selection right now is quite minimal and needs expansion. They have such a strong selection of titles and I would drop my money in a heartbeat for remasters. |
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Tratious
 Posts: 316 Location: Savannah, GA |
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Tidepoint is not a Viz subsidary, they are a separate company.
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Is the title supposed to reference this creepy Ash pokememe? Because that's the first thing I thought of.
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